I have a couple of submitted manuscripts closely related with the job description. However, the papers are not yet published. Is it okay to use those as writing samples? Although I am the first author, I am not the sole author on these papers. Should I ask my coauthors for their permission? I do see people post unpublished manuscripts on research gate or their own websites all the time. So maybe that's okay. But I just want to be careful. Is there a rule of thumb in terms of choosing writing samples during job application?

I'm starting my 4th year as a post-doc and I'm in the same boat this year. For the Oct 1 deadline schools I submitted a 2013 paper, an in press paper, and one that's under review. I asked a couple faculty and they thought this was a better option than a 6 year old first author Psych Sci paper from 2008 (from a different research area that I'm working in now).

Yup…I am adding an under review as my fourth option since it is really cool research that I'm excited about (I'm a more senior applicant in a current TT position). I think if it is just one of your pubs then it is OK.

Faculty/search committee member here. Absolutely do not be afraid of submitting in-progress work! Submit whatever is your best, most exciting work, that is most representative of what you would like to do in a faculty position.Think about what you want people to ask you about during an interview and give them a chance to read that. Oftentimes that does end up being your in progress work.

Would it ever be advisable to send a poster reprint? I will be presenting a poster soon that will show some exciting new data but there is no way I'll have a sufficiently polished manuscript to send to any but maybe the latest deadlines. I am guessing this is a definite no if they ask for a certain number of reprints (for example, if they want 3 representative publications, they probably don't want one of them to be a poster). But if they simply ask for representative pubs, could it hurt to add a poster reprint along with your papers?